Provinces poles apart in emotions

The coaches of Leinster and Munster had entirely different days to reflect upon, writes John OBrien

LEINSTER coach Gary Ella and his players returned to Ireland last night deeply dejected by their failure to qualify from Pool 3. In Matt Williams’ first season in charge of Leinster in 2001, the Irish province succumbed 30-10 at the same venue in their final pool game and memories of that game must have been in the minds of the senior Leinster players. “We’re bitterly disappointed to be out at the pool stage,” said Ella. “I thought we put in a decent effort, but made too many mistakes at crucial times in the game, and you cannot afford to assist French sides in their tries, especially away from home.”

All Leinster have to look forward to now is the Celtic League. “We’ve got to pick ourselves up and get our injured players back fit again,” said Ella. “It is a setback but we have a lot of young players in